It is known to package consumable products by placing a number of the products side-by-side to form a stack and enclosing the stack in a tubular packet formed from a wrapper of flexible material. This type of packaging is used for a variety of consumable products such as biscuits and confectionery items, including gum pellets. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a stack 10 of chewing gum pellets 12 packaged in this way. The wrapper 14 is folded circumferentially about the stack so that one side edge 14a of the wrapper overlaps another side edge and is held in place by means of adhesive or otherwise bonded to form a seal. The wrapper is longer than the stack products so that the ends of the wrapper extend beyond the ends of the stack. Each end of the wrapper is folded to provide end closure flaps which overlie their respective ends of the stack to form an end wall region 18. The flaps are usually held in place by means of adhesive or otherwise bonded so that the wrapper forms a sealed, tubular packet for the confectionery pellets. Sometimes a second, inner wrapper is provided which is folded about the product in a similar manner to the main or outer wrapper before the outer wrapper is applied. This is referred to as “double wrapped”. However, in many cases only a single wrapper is used, which is referred to as “single wrapped”. In some cases, each product in the stack is also individually wrapped.
Other food and confectionery items are also provided in the form of pellets, pastilles, tablets or the like and are suitable for packaging in the manner described above. For example, hard boiled sweets, candies, chocolates, toffee or mints may be provided in the form of pellets or pastilles as can may other types of candy both hard and soft.
The terms gum and chewing gum as used herein include bubble gum.
For use in packaging consumable goods, the wrapper is usually fabricated from a sheet of material that is substantially gas and moisture impervious and overlapping portions of the wrapper are adhered to one another so that the packet is fully sealed. Although for certain food and confectionery products, a hermetically sealed package is not desirable. Suitable wrappers can be made from a variety of materials including polymeric materials, metallic foil, and paper. Often the wrapper will be formed from a laminated sheet of material having two or more layers of material.
To assist a consumer in gaining access to the packaged products, it is common practice to provide a tear guide in or on the wrapper which assists a consumer in tearing the packet along a predetermined line. One known form of tear guide is a tear strip which is attached to an inner surface of the wrapper and is made of a material which is stronger than the wrapper. An end of the tear strip is exposed in the finished packet so that it can be grasped by a user and pulled to tear the wrapper along the line of the strip. Often the tear guide will be positioned to that it circumscribes the packet at or close to one end. A conventional tear strip arrangement is shown at 20 in FIG. 1.
Use of a tear strip is disadvantageous as it requires the manufacture and storage of an additional component, i.e. the strip, as well as an additional process step of applying the strip to the wrapper. This adds to the overall cost of manufacture. In addition, due to the nature of the materials used, wrappers that are gas and moisture impervious are often quite tough and can be difficult to tear in a predictable manner using a tear strip. To overcome these drawbacks, it is known to form one or more defined line of weakness in the wrapper to act as a tear guide. Lines of weakness can be formed by means of perforations which extend through the wrapper but this is not suitable where the product is perishable as the integrity of the sealed packet is lost. However, if the wrapper is a multi-layered, laminated sheet, then perforations or a score line can be provided in only one or some of the layers so that at least one layer is left intact to maintain the integrity of the packet prior to opening. In wrappers enclosing a stack of products, the line of weakness will usually be located so that an end region of the tubular packet is removed when the package is opened.
In the known arrangements, it is necessary for the wrapper to have an exterior tab that can be grasped by a user to initiate tearing along the line of weakness. This arrangement is not ideal as the exterior tab is prone to damage and there is the risk that the tab may get caught when the package assembly is moved so that tearing is prematurely initiated. Furthermore, an exterior tab is not always aesthetically pleasing to the consumer.
A further drawback with the conventional packaging arrangements is that the packet often cannot be re-closed so as to effectively retain and protect, at least to some degree, the remaining contents. This is a particular issue where the user will typically remove only one or a few of the products at a time and will wish to safely retain the remaining products for later consumption.
There is a need for an alternative packaging arrangement which overcomes or at least mitigates the disadvantages of the prior art arrangements.
There is also a need for an improved method of opening a packaging arrangement which overcomes, or at least mitigates, the disadvantages of the known methods.